If an answer which includes a link for a crucial part of an answer is frowned upon, should questions that use *fiddle.com for a critical part of the question be treated similarly, ie: as a link only question? Should questions be self contained?

For the avoidance of doubt, I don't want to ban these sites, but surely visiting them should not be essential to answering the question? Can their permanence be guaranteed more than any other linked site?

2 Answers
2

Yes, visiting another site to get part of the question is definitely discouraged. All of the code required to reproduce the problem faced should be posted in the body of the question. An additional link to another site for a demo is fine, but it's not enough by itself.

So should it be closed? If so, what reason? "Unclear what you're asking?"
–
podiluskaJun 13 '14 at 11:11

3

@podiluska On the Close dialog, select "off-topic because..." There's a new close reason listed under there for this kind of question. "Questions seeking debugging help ("why isn't this code working?") must include the desired behavior, a specific problem or error and the shortest code necessary to reproduce it in the question itself. Questions without a clear problem statement are not useful to other readers. See: How to create a Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example."
–
Bill the LizardJun 13 '14 at 12:02

Adding it to the question yourself doesn't really educate the person asking the question; they need to learn that they should be including these things in their questions from the start. If you're going to edit it yourself you'll also need to comment explaining what you've done and why, and making it clear that they should be doing it in future.
–
Anthony GristJun 13 '14 at 12:48

iirc some people circumvent this by adding a single or only a few lines of code. Just want to say that this solution is not perfect either.
–
TrilarionJun 13 '14 at 13:29

@Trilarion I know, the check is rather simple, but it does prevent a lot of questions with just a Fiddle.
–
StijnJun 13 '14 at 13:31